Family hoping for miracle as Tucson man faces deportation
By: Angela Le, Cronkite News Service
05/09/2008
TUCSON - Victor Napoles, a 21-year-old Mexican national who grew up in Tucson, is facing deportation after losing a case that began with him barking at another man's dog.
That man turned out to be a U.S. Border Patrol agent.
Now Napoles, the oldest of five children and "the man of the family," is facing the consequences of the impulsive late-night joke that occurred more than a year ago in Tucson. The case shows how, for an undocumented immigrant, even a seemingly insignificant joke can have dire effects.
Napoles' mother, Angelica Martinez, is terrified that her son will be deported.
At 43, Martinez is the mother of five children-four of them born in the United States and Napoles, who was born in Hermosillo, Sonora, in Mexico. She and Napoles are in this country illegally.
Losing Napoles would be very hard for his younger siblings, Martinez said.
"(He's) their father, their mentor ... he's their everything," she said.
Her 10-year-old son, Cesar, looks up to Napoles the most.
"He's my superhero," Cesar said. "I love Victor very much. If he leaves, I'll miss him."
The case of the barking dog
On Nov. 8, 2007, Martinez was the only family member present for her eldest son's deportation hearing.
Border Patrol agent James Spiering testified that his reason for pulling Napoles over was "the way he was shouting over my lane at my K-9 dog made me think he wasn't in the right state of mind."
"I thought he could have been mentally ill and forgot to take his medicine or was driving under the influence," Spiering said.
Martinez doesn't believe the agent's explanation. And she says the agent was out of line when he said to the judge that he also thought Napoles might have a connection to a drive-by shooting six months previously at the same intersection.
Napoles said he had no idea that a simple bark could land him in such trouble. (mORE)
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